Publishers and developers that are under the impression that the used games market is hurting them can't wait for everything to go digital. One such developer is Obsidian Entertainment's Chief Creative Officer Chris Avellone. You may know the company best for such games as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Dungeon Siege III, Fallout: New Vegas - and soon - the South Park RPG.

In a recent interview with IndustryGamers, Avellone said "Of course, one of the greatest things about digital distribution is what it does to reduce the used game market. I hope digital distribution stabs the used game market in the heart."

Avellone also noted that developers have more flexibility with digital releases.

"One of the things I enjoyed with Fallout: New Vegas was that digital distribution of the DLC made things more flexible in terms of getting the content done. You didn't have to worry about production times for discs, and so you could take an extra week if you needed that to get things right," he said.

Avellone hopes that one day digital distribution will allow his company to distribute its own games:

"Our eventual hope is that we can stockpile enough resources to release our own titles digitally. Smaller games can be very satisfying projects to work on, and it would be great to do that. But it's going to take time for us to get there; we want to make sure we do it right."

Of course, the company is better known for making sequels for franchises owned by other publishers and developers, and not its own properties. So far its original work consists of Alpha Prime.

Comments

For one I agree. The price in the store is based on shipping, the disputation of the product and other factors. Being the middle man is cut out they can do a Walmart (This is what Walmart does to have low prices) and sell low!

Seriously for someone like me who had family members steal their products I buy only digital and I would love to get what it actually costs to get this product

I don't see consumers being all that happy going directly to developers for their games, at least not on any significant scale. People tend to like one-stop shopping... the idea of having to track down the individual website that sells a particular game and go through each company's own home grown ordering and download system.. would probably piss people off.

People are already getting frustrated with the 'ok, is this game on Steam, Impulse, Apple's Appstore? do I need accounts/daemons for all of these now?'

This from the developers who can't make a stable, bug-free game to save their lives! Hey Avellone, you want to really cut down on the used game market? STOP MAKING SHIT GAMES!!! Get some real quality control in there and make sure your games are polished and at least 90% bug free before you send them out the door. That way people will be less inclined to take them back and re-sell another one of your broken games rather than wait an unspecified number of days or weeks for a patch.

We'll scrap the used-sales market, the day YOU give gamers an inch of standard CUSTOMER RIGHTS. Publishers got a pretty sweet deal at the moment. Sell games that isn't working... and not having to do anything about it.

Btw... South Park RPG... Uhm, why not a Beavis and Butthead RPG as well? An equally dead IP.

I'm sure the chump change that goes into buying used games is needed for some jackass publisher to host his yacht party. Everytime I buy a digital PS1 classic on my PS3, I always have an uncomfrotable suspicion that these kinds of thoughts run through the heads of those manatees.

I don't understand, what do these game companies who rail against the used games market want? Every single game that's ever sold to be brand new copies? Do they really want their entire customer base to have to to go directly to them in order to play any game they don't currently have, regardless of how fucking old it is?

Fuck that. We put you in your mansions, we don't deserve to get treated like that. I'll pay for my games, but if I can't sell them to someone else at any point after I stop liking them, I'm just going to start shipping them back to the developers, since they'll obviously be allowed to. Is that what you want Obsidian? You want your games back so that only you make any profit off of them? Fine, you can have... Oh shit, I don't play any of your games. Tough luck I guess.

I'm not seeing any bitching, whining or moaning- merely someone making a throwaway comment about how they've identified one thing that exists, and how it runs counter to another thing that they have indentified exists.

At worst, it's still framed as a positive, and therefore still not bitching, whining or moaning- "Thing A is great, because there is no more Thing B" is not the same as "Thing B is terrible"

If "I hope this gets stabbed in the heart" doesn't count as whining in your book, then I dunno what would. Yes its a short, throwaway whine, probably out of context, but it's a whine nonetheless.

I dont blame him. If any other company saw a potential way to stop people buying second-hand I'm sure they'd want to do it too. Most companies, though, have the common sense not to say so in public, annoying the people who buy their products.

Yes it is. It's exactly the same. Would getting rid of something good be good? Would getting rid of something that is neither good nor bad be a good thing? No, neither of those would be. It is implied and clear that "A" getting rid of "B" is good because "B" is bad. Your logic is faulty.

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Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm